Tom Cruise re-creates his entire film career for James Corden

James Corden and Tom Cruise act out nonstop snippets from Cruise's film career, with scenes from "Top Gun" to the "Mission: Impossible" series, on "The Late Late Show."

If you were of movie-going age in 1983, the year "Risky Business" came out, Tom Cruise and James Corden's live re-creation of the movie star's top films is a walk down memory lane. If you weren't, well, consider it CliffsNotes for when "Career of Tom Cruise" is a midterm question in CNTV-101.

Cruise hit "The Late Late Show" on Wednesday night, when a routine promotional sit-down turned into a prop- and wardrobe-filled blue-screen adventure.

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Witness that scene from "Tropic Thunder." That scene from the first "Mission Impossible." That scene from "Risky Business." And that scene from "A Few Good Men," in which Corden delivers a performance to make Jack Nicholson proud. Or at least to make Nicholson crack up just a bit.

There's also an absolutely perfect cameo that comes in when the sketch needs it the most, shortly after the three-minute mark.

"If you're gonna do it, lemme do it right," the mystery guest tells Corden as he takes the mic and shows him — how it's done.

What a pleasant way to hear that Cruise's second Jack Reacher movie opens Friday.